How Apple's monster Q1 made them #1

Apple only makes one phone — the iPhone. Sure there're two different sizes of the current generation model, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as two previous generation models, the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, but the range and diversity is nothing like the portfolio pushed out by Samsung. Which is what makes Apple's monstrous Q1 2015 quarter, and possibility that, for the first time, they surged past Samsung to become the largest smartphone seller in the world, so interesting. Ben Bajarin, writing and graphing for Tech.pinions:

I have access to live device data which helps me put parts of this puzzle together. From all the sources I have, and trying to get closer to sell through by the vendors, this is where I landed.

Ben points out Samsung will almost certainly regain the lead next quarter, but given how differently they run their businesses, Apple's achievement here is all the more remarkable.

Apple focuses exclusive on the mid to upper end of the market. For PCs, this has historically meant that even though Apple has a small share they still make exceptional profits. For phones, we see the results when the share isn't so small...